The Association of Rural Banks, Ghana which is made of the over one hundred and forty rural banks in Ghana has launched a new corporate cloth.

The launch of the corporate Friday wear was part of activities that marked the 21st Biennial General Meeting held recently at Miklin Hotel in Kumasi.

The new cloth according to the National Council is a consistent move to maintain the Association’s corporate image and brand awareness.

The Executive Director of the Association, Mrs Comfort Owusu tells Business & Financial Times that the introduction of the new cloth is part of the Association’s reform approaches to meet the current marketing trends in the banking industry.

According to her, the healthy competition in the Banking industry is bringing some form of innovative strategies and that the member banks have a responsibility to make a conscious effort to meet the prevailing standards.

The Association has made very significant impact by driving the advocacy agenda and making a very meaningful contribution to the wellbeing of member rural banks.

Mrs. Owusu attested to the fact that the banking environment has experienced some challenges since the government started the clean-up and with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic but member rural banks have exhibited some level of resilience and been able to withstand the difficult times.

According to her, the introduction of corporate cloth is one of the many marketing activities that will be rolled out in the year 2021. She is however confident that by next year member rural banks will have surmounted all challenges and taken off well to serve the over six million customers scattered across the country.

The rural and community bank subsector of the financial industry continues to show signs of resilience, despite the punitive impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on the economy, recording some modest growth in deposit mobilization.

The subsector of the banking industry recorded a total deposit of GH¢4.32 billion as at the end of the second quarter of 2020. The 23.1% year-on-year trend of growth of RCBs deposits, followed from an increase of GH₵2.85 billion recorded at the end of 2017 to GH₵3.83 billion recorded in 2019.

Total loans and advances also increased from GH¢1.56 billion to GH¢1.69 billion while total assets surged from GH¢4.27 billion to GH¢5.1 billion over the same period, with recorded growth rates of 8.3% and 19.4% respectively.